Tony La Russa, chief baseball officer of the gritty, gritty Arizona Diamondbacks, has thoughts about Kaepernick’s decision to protest institutional inequality in America by kneeling during the national anthem. Do you want to hear those thoughts? Too bad, here they are.

“I know that there’s a constitutional right to express yourself, but I think you have a right as an organization to have a certain philosophy about respecting, whether it’s our Constitution, whether it’s our country, whether its our soldiers...our flag,” La Russa said. “I would not, to the best of my ability, I would not sanction somebody taking a knee.

“I think that’s disrespectful, and I really question the sincerity of somebody like Kaepernick. I remember when he was on top. I never heard him talk about anything but himself. Now all of a sudden he’s struggling for attention and he makes this big pitch. I don’t buy it. And even if he was sincere, there are other ways to show your concern. Disrespecting our flag is not the way to do it.”

We have strong reason to doubt La Russa believes what he says here. After all, his job is reportedly in danger because of the piss-poor performance of the D-Backs and the incompetence of the team’s front office, which has extended to being unaware of basic rules surrounding which players can be traded and when. Why, using La Russa’s own logic, there’s no reason to think he isn’t just a has-been spouting off in a desperate bid for attention.

Nice try, Tony, but we see right through you.

(Headline reluctantly self-edited from “Shut The Fuck Up, Tony La Russa,” because this is America, consarn it, and everyone has the Constitutional right to show their ass.)